In an October 2016 file photo Central Valley Honor Flight veterans return home to Fresno Yosemite International Airport. The latest Honor Flight went to D.C. this week; 15 fliers, including three veterans, failed to join Wednesday’s scheduled flight home because of illness. SILVIA FLORESsflores@fresnobee.com

In an October 2016 file photo Central Valley Honor Flight veterans return home to Fresno Yosemite International Airport. The latest Honor Flight went to D.C. this week; 15 fliers, including three veterans, failed to join Wednesday’s scheduled flight home because of illness. SILVIA FLORESsflores@fresnobee.com

Illness hits 15 from latest Honor Flight. They’ll stay in D.C. while the rest come home

More than a dozen of the people who traveled to Washington, D.C., this week on the latest Central Valley Honor Flight for military veterans failed to make the scheduled trip home Wednesday because an apparent food-borne virus.

Three of the 15 people affected were veterans, spokeswoman Sarah Pruner Gunlund said.

There were 66 veterans, family/guardians or medical support staff on this, the 13th Honor Flight.

“All three veterans who are ill have their sons with them as guardians, and they are helping to provide their dads’ care along with Honor Flight’s medical staff,” Pruner Gunlund said in a statement.

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Meanwhile, the return flight was delayed, reportedly because a scheduled pilot took ill. Gunlund said the flight, originally scheduled to arrive at 6 p.m. at Fresno Yosemite International Airport, could land as late as 10 p.m.